5 Centavos overprinted on P# 179

This note was not printed fresh — it is a provisional overprint applied to existing 50 Centavos stock (Pick 179) after Brazil's 1966 monetary reform slashed the cruzeiro by a factor of ten, making each old 50 Centavos note equivalent to the new 5 Centavos value. Overprinting existing reserves was cheaper and faster than commissioning an entirely new printing run, and De La Rue handled both the original notes and the overprint work.

The reform that created this note — the cruzeiro novo — was introduced under the military government's stabilization program, PAEG, designed to bring Brazil's chronic inflation under control. The overprint series was always a stopgap; within a few years the denomination had become essentially worthless in daily transactions.